Meetinghouse, 2331 E Cumberland St, Philadelphia.
I was in love with Meetinghouse before setting foot in the Philadelphia pub. Opened about a year ago, it quickly became a new classic with its simple and impeccable menu combined with its laidback, welcoming environment. Given the chatter around town and beyond, I’m definitely not the only one in love.
The team that opened Meetinghouse includes folks with great reputations around Philly including Keith Shore, Marty West, Drew DiTomo, and Colin McFadden. Colin and I had previously met through our mutual friend, Jess Reaves.
Though that prior intro to Colin was brief, I saw his incredibly warm, kind, and passionate personality. When Jess told me that Colin was opening a pub, I knew it woud be great.
Colin isn’t the only affable person at Meetinghouse. In something that I like to attribute to Philadelphia, the rest of the team, including his partners and their staff, are down-to-earth, authentic, and kind. It’s a culture, and to be a patron there is to be a part of it. It seeps into your body and warms your soul. That’s a bit dramatic, but a great pub can have that kind of effect.
The aesthetic at Meetinghouse is simple. If you want to experience it as a regular pub, you can do that. It has everything you need. But if you want to pay a little more attention, you’ll notice everything is subtly and stylishly elevated. It’s one of those highly Instagramable spaces, but the place is so captivating that if you actually think to take out your phone, you almost feel guilty.
Baked clams and Creamed Chipped Beef at Meetinghouse.
Highlights from the kitchen for me were the hot roast beef sandwich that manages to be decadent and a little messy without feeling gluttonous, the addictive, garlicky and herbaceous baked clams (I think we had three orders while in town), the tangy green salad that helped me nurse my hangover (it’s comprised solely of greens and a dressing), and the fries. Yes, the fries were a highlight. They’re perfect.
They have specials throughout the week and it’s frustrating to see them post these on social media when you can’t get there to enjoy. In particular, they do a mussel and frites night, and knowing how good the fries are, I’m sure they’re the perfect vessel to absorb as much mussel broth as possible.
It’s not a typical pub menu, but it is pub grub. High-quality pub grub without being pretentious. The same goes for the beer. Meetinghouse has three house beers designed by Colin and made across the Delaware River at South Jersey’s Tonewood Brewing.
Their marketing makes it simple when describing the beer:
Morning Swim is a Pale Beer.
Mount Pleasant is a Hoppy Beer.
Living Thing is a Dark Beer.
All of these things are true. In just a few simple words, they explain so much. And with simple recipes that are perfectly executed, these beers do so much whether those drinking them see it or not. But I don’t think they’re actually designed to do much besides be enjoyable. The Meetinghouse team is not interested in how many bottlecaps their beers have on Untappd. They just want to make sure their patrons have a solid beer to enjoy in their pub.
So, not surprisingly, they’re all approachable. The use of Kölsch yeast in each beer helps make this happen. It creates simple, easy-drinking beer that straddles the line between lager and ale. They’re all at reasonable ABVs (between 4.9 and 5.6 ABV) and poured in roughly twelve-ounce servings. It’s meant to allow you to have a few in one stop.
Morning Swim is a pale beer.
Mount Pleasant is a hoppy beer.
Living Thing is a dark beer.
Of the three, Morning Swim is the one most similar to a Kölsch. It’s also reminiscent of a Cream Ale, but more polished. This is high-end lawnmower beer, without feeling gussied up.
Though also a pale beer, Mount Pleasant is a hoppy beer, as advertised. It hits the spot for any reasonable person who claims to like hoppy beer. But if you’re not a hophead, it’s not overly hopped.
Living Thing has a fairly light body, making it somewhat akin to a Schwarzbier, but the flavor profile is a little more nuanced giving hints of Baltic Porter.
In addition to these three, there are two other beers available. Two beers that I personally adore. Guinness and Orval. In a rare instance of chutzpah, Colin proudly notes they serve the best Guinness in Philly. I had one. It was perfect. And while I was there (on a hot summer weekend, mind you), Guinness was regularly being poured.
The Orval doesn’t move as fast, but we made sure to have some. It’s one of my all-time favorite beers and since they make the effort to stock it, it would have been rude not to have one.
A half dozen pints of Guinness lined up on a hot summer night.
Orval, served by the incredibly kind Al Upshaw at Meetinghouse. (Chcek out Al’s project, Concrete Blues. He’s making cask ale!)
Beyond beer, there’s a brief cocktail list that includes Long Island Iced Tea. Though I was incredibly curious, I didn’t manage to squeeze one in on this trip. I did have an excellent Negroni. Beyond the cocktails, the have a few bottles of staple liquors.
Like the beer menu, there’s a streamlined wine selection. A red, a white, and a sparkling wine. Simple. There’s also a weekly mystery wine. Again, like the beer, these are all interesting but approachable.
Rounding things out, they have the Ploughman cider and a handful of NA options.
Colin and Jess reunite. Greetings aren’t always this intense at Meetinghouse, but they’re close.
Meetinghouse was our first and last stop on a 24-hour trip to Philly. We grabbed brunch with Brendon from Carbon Copy before heading back to New York. Brendon opened Carbon Copy’s new location in the Port Richmond neighborhood that weekend (another great spot worth checking out. Go for the beer. Stay for the pierogies.) We reminisced while Marty and Colin popped in and out of the conversation before Brendon had to head off for a long day at the new spot.
I watched as Marty warmly greeted customers when they came in. It was hard to tell if they were old friends, regulars, or new customers, but the atmosphere was so relaxed and welcoming that it felt like we could all instantly be friends and join in conversation together. When you enter Meetinghouse, it’s like you’re walking into a get-together in their living room with people that if they’re not already friends, they will be shortly. The warm summer Sunday afternoon called for another Morning Swim and an order of baked clams. It was really hard to leave my new friends at Meetinghouse.